Washington Wine Tasting - Summer 2014
My travelogue:
We flew out to Walla Walla on Sunday, June 22nd, in a small prop plane without issue, and got our rental Nissan Maxima, which looked pretty macho and had decent power. Google maps directed us to our first BnB, a very cute yellow Victorian called Vine and Roses (we highly recommend. Found on TripAdvisor). We dropped off all our luggage and drove to the nearby downtown for our first wine tasting at Russell Creek, matched perfectly with some hummus and cheese. We proceeded on that perfectly sunny and warm day to try out a couple more wineries (Mark Ryan across the street, Maison Bleu was very cute) and then had dinner at the highly recommended Saffron restaurant.
On Monday, we had the best breakfast ever. The chef made a dairy free frittata for me and some cheese frittata that Mae-Ling raved over.
I then wine tasted at a few more places (recommend Tero, and walking thru the cute Marcus Whitman hotel lobby) while Mae-Ling had her hair washed. Lunch at Olives, super yummy fruit salad. Then we went to our favorite winery, Basel Cellars. We decided we liked wineries that could double as wedding locations. After a few more boutique wineries (Sleight of Hand, and a slice of Tuscany next door called Va Piano), we had an early dinner at Whitehouse Crawford restaurant. Good organic food. We had a pleasant walk around the park just outside the house.
On Tuesday, we had another
wonderful breakfast before checking out. We stopped at the cool schoolyard
winery L'Ecole on the way out of town (nice pond next door, walked thru to
neighbor winery which was ok too, but do not buy the vegan biscotti -yuck. We
didn't have time but Long Shadows was highly recommended). We then drove an
hour to another winery that was unfortunately closed because it had cool
grounds. We stopped for lunch at Panda Express, happy to get some veggies into
our diet. After another 2 hours through boring desolate land, we made it to Cave
B and checked into our high class yurt. We tasted some yummy wine and had a nice
dinner overlooking the Columbia River way down below the gorge. (Highly
recommend Cave B staying in a yurt. We did not try any other wineries in the tri
city area).
I went for a bike ride around the property before breakfasts and then we checked out. We had a super view of the Columbia River at the scenic outlook. Then we drove over the Cascades to get to Woodinville, just in time to check into our nice Willows Lodge (also nice, right next to HerbFarm) and walk across the street to Chateau St. Michelle before it closed. We had a terrible-for-you (but yummy) dinner at Redhook Brewery but I enjoyed the flight of beers.
The next morning, while Mae-Ling met her friend, I went to Columbia winery, the very cool Novelty Hill / Januik winery (won some architecture awards), and finally the Woodinville Whiskey distillery. I was surprised by the bourbon and even more surprised by the vodka. I bought both to give to Bennet. I tried to sober up over a hamburger at the restaurant connected to the distillery. Mae-Ling then drove us back to Seattle where we checked into the Bellevue Hilton. Wow, the drive across Washington State made me appreciate the size of the US, and how much faster and easier flying is. I wondered at how Lewis and Clark made it across these lands by foot and boat, without the benefit of Google maps!
We drove down from Woodinville and checked into the Bellevue Hilton and hung out with our best friends Bennet and Eugenia for a few days.
